Adyen: Worldwide mobile transactions up 27% over the past four months

Mobile payments transactions on Adyen’s platform jumped by 27 percent worldwide, from 13.8 percent of all transactions at the end of April 2013 to 17.5 percent in August 2013.

The report has revealed that, with its heavy concentration of mobile users, Europe still leads the world in terms of mobile payment transactions, with 18.16 percent of all transactions leveraging this channel, up from 15.4 percent in April. This is an increase of 18 percent over the four months from May to August. Broken down by form factor during this period, tablets represent an 8.4 percent share of total transactions in Europe; smartphones 9.7 percent.

The share of mobile payments in North America has also surged, up from 11.2 percent of all transactions in May to 16.6 percent in August. Conversely, Asia saw a decline from 12.4 percent to 11.4 percent. South America’s mobile payments market is relatively nascent, but the Index recorded that 4.2 percent of all transactions were made via mobile device in August. In North America, smartphones remain the primary mobile transaction device, taking 10.8 percent versus 5.8 percent via tablet. In Asia, tablet use has eclipsed smartphones for payments with 6.3 percent compared to 5.1 percent, but in South America tablets reign, taking 2.8 percent of transactions, double the smartphone figure of 1.4 percent.

The Index has also found that the overall percentage of worldwide purchases made using both mobile phones and tablet devices increased during this period (smartphones from 6.5 percent to 9.2 percent, tablets from 7.4 percent to 8.3 percent). However, in a reversal from the previous Index published in May 2013, tablet devices lost share to smartphones, decreasing during this period from 53.2 percent to 47.4 percent – the lowest percentage since May 2012, while smartphone usage increased from 46.8 percent to 52.6 percent – the highest percentage since May 2012. A possible reason Adyen puts forward to explain this reversal is a changed behaviour in the summer vacation season, whereby highly portable smartphones are much more convenient for on-the-go mobile purchases than less portable tablet devices.

Furthermore, the Adyen Global Mobile Payments Index has revealed that iOS devices (iPhone and iPad) accounted for nearly 75 percent of all mobile transactions on Adyen’s platform (which equals 13.1 percent of all transactions, up from 11 percent in April 2013) and Android devices were responsible for nearly 25 percent of mobile transactions (4.3 percent of all transactions, up from 3.1 percent). Windows Mobile captured 0.6 percent to BlackBerry’s 0.3 percent. In the last three months, Windows Mobile grew rapidly, with purchases made from the platform increasing by 20 percent.

Adyen’s data has also revealed mobile’s penetration into various sectors that are traditionally dominated by POS or online transactions. In the travel sector, mobile purchases increased from 20 percent to 24.1 percent of all travel-related transactions, with smartphones edging over tablet devices 13.27 percent to 10.9 percent. In the retail sector, consumers used their mobile devices for nearly 17.5 percent of all retail purchases during this period, up from the 15 percent reported in the previous Index. Tablet use for retail purchases was nearly double that of smartphones (11.63 percent and 5.85 percent respectively), indicating a clear consumer preference for the larger user-friendly screen when shopping via mobile device. In what concerns ticketing services, mobile ticketing purchases for concerts, movies, sports, theatre shows and other events represented 18.3 percent of all ticketing purchases, up from 15 percent. Smartphone use in mobile ticketing was nearly twice that of tablet use (12.1 percent vs. 6.2 percent), indicating a strong consumer preference to pay on the spot, avoid queues and receive the electronic ticket directly on the phone to be scanned at the entrance.

Additionally, mobile digital content purchases, which include books, movies, music, software, and services, increased from 15 percent to 16.5 percent. The share of smartphone purchases in this category grew significantly, by more than 25 percent this period (to 10.9 percent), while tablet use decreased more than 19.5 percent (to 5.6 percent). Adyen attributes this to rising sales of larger-screen smartphones, which are increasingly used for watching films and reading ebooks or news. Smartphones are also more convenient than tablets for downloading and listening to music on the go. Many tablets are only connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi, which inhibits people from purchasing digital goods on the go. Of all the sectors covered, only gaming showed an overall decline in mobile purchases, to 8.5 percent down from 9 percent. Smartphones, however, continue to be the platform of choice, representing 6.7 percent of mobile gaming transactions.

The Adyen Global Mobile Payments Index is published quarterly and based on Adyen global payment transaction data.

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